Mamdani renews call for Netanyahu’s arrest, urges US to join ICC

During his political campaign, Mamdani pledged to order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu if he visited New York based on the ICC warrant.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani renewed his call for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be arrested over alleged war crimes, while arguing that the United States should join the International Criminal Court and enforce its warrants.

“If I had my say, the US government would have joined the ICC, honored every single warrant that they’ve issued. I believe that the US government should join the ICC. It should enforce its warrants for everyone,” Mamdani told Theo Von on “This Past Weekend.”

Mamdani also repeated an accusation he made before Netanyahu’s recent visit to address the UN General Assembly.

“When you ask about the prime minister, we’re talking about the architect of a horrific genocide,” Mamdani said.

Netanyahu has criticized Mamdani, saying that “Jews no longer feel safe” in New York under the mayor. He also took issue with Mamdani’s characterization of Israel’s actions in Gaza and social media activity by the mayor’s wife, Rama Duwaji.

“It was strange,” Mamdani said of Netanyahu’s remarks. “I was having a meeting with the Prime Minister of the Netherlands at the LGBTQ center in downtown Manhattan … and then I get back from that meeting, and it’s like, ‘Oh, by the way, here’s what he was saying at the UN.’”

Mamdani accused Netanyahu of seeking to divert attention from the allegations against him.

“All of this is an attempt to distract from responsibility – name as many people as possible, try and make it into a back-and-forth. It’s not about me and him.”

“It’s about the fact that he’s the architect of a genocide. And it’s like, yeah, if I was the architect of a genocide, I would probably talk about anything but that,” charged Mamdani.

During his political campaign, Mamdani pledged to order the NYPD to arrest Netanyahu if he visited New York based on the ICC warrant.

After instructing his legal team to examine the issue, however, Mamdani acknowledged in July 2026 that New York City does not independently have the legal authority to carry out such an arrest.

The United States is not an ICC member, and legal experts and federal statutes have established that local police cannot enforce its warrants against a sitting foreign head of state with diplomatic immunity while visiting the United Nations.